Many gardeners know Impatiens walleriana, which brighten up containers, window boxes, and shady spots around the world. Yet the genus Impatiens is enormous, comprising more than a thousand species, and many of these, although highly desirable, remain little known to gardeners. Ray Morgan reveals this untapped wealth of garden treasures, examining Impatiens first through their botany and their history, including Joseph Dalton Hooker's Victorian-era plant-hunting forays into the Himalayas. Morgan then describes more than 200 impatiens, pictured in 160 color photographs—Madagascar native Impatiens bicaudata makes a showy display with bright red flowers, yellow centers, and purple pollen, for example, while Impatiens balsamina, whose camellia-shaped flowers were once popular in cottage gardens, is ripe for rediscovery.